CALIFORNIA INDIANS JURISDICTIONAL ACT THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1935 UNITED STATES SENATE, The committee met pursuant to call at 10:30 a. m., in room 424-A, Senate Office Building, Senator Elmer Thomas (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Thomas (chairman), Frazier, Donahey, LaFollette, Chavez, and Norbeck. Also present: Hon. John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Hon. Marion Butler and John S. Meaney, Washington, D. C., representing Mission Indians; and A. K. Shipe and F. G. Collett, representing California Indians, Inc. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. This meeting was called for the particular purpose of taking up the California jurisdictional bill. As the members will remember, the bill was up on a former occasion and was reported out and passed by the Senate and sent to the House, and then recalled. We have had the bill up more or less since it was presumed to have come back from the House, but we discovered, when we had our hearings in the former case, that the bill was still in the possession of the House. However, I am advised that the bill is now back in our committee, so that we are ready to take final action, if we desire, upon this more or less controversial matter. I have consulted with some of the members of the California delegation and so far I have failed to find anyone who has any particular interest in the question. I am sure they have interest in it, but perhaps they are not advised of the facts and were unable to form any opinion as to what ought to be done in the premises. I would like to have a statement from the Bureau or the Department as to what, if any, recommendation the Department has to make with regard to our further activity on this proposed legislation. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN COLLIER, COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS Mr. COLLIER. The first recommendation would be that sections 1, 2, and 3 of the bill as here printed should be advanced in every possible way. Those are the sections which provide for amending the existing jurisdictional act and provide for the amendment of the suit in such a way that the Indian claim will be obtained and the Indian recovery will be increased. That is the important part of the bill. The Department is favorable to that. The Budget takes its natural position, that it is contrary to the economy program. We 125 |